What is art?

[Soulforged]

Fischl said that art 'creates a unique experience in the viewer without him having to ask what the hell it is about'.

If that's his central argument I don't disagree completly, but perhaps it could be formulated better without expanding it too much: "Art is any mancrafted product that creates a unique experience in the viewer without him having to ask what the hell it is about. Without that adendum it might as well be refering to natural phenomena. Of course art could also refer to a certain tecnique that requires a certain skill and a certain ritual, and often brings forth the notion of talent (as Philipus put it). I'm actually amazed at how well that definition, short but concise, works.

However, though that certainly wraps the notion of art as a product of man, as far as I can tell, some other kind of art bears a message. One could disect the message it carries from what it has of art (that unique experience which doesn't need to be explained).

By convention we call this art, natural language refers to this as art. We could go against the convention but that will truncate the very purpose of defining what is art. We could also argue that the message (written below the pipe) is as much a part of the painting as the pipe or the background, but the message needs to be taken out, read, interpreted and analyzed to even experience what the picture wants to transmit.

We could also say that it simply isn't art, but then what is it. Just a picture?

EDIT: Sorry for that Banquo. By the way, how do I post an image hosted locally on my computer, I've tried the file and the http protocol for URLs but it doesn't seem to work. Thanks.